The Ryga Initiative at Okanagan College | in association with the Okanagan Institute

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THE RYGA INITIATIVE
AT OKANAGAN COLLEGE
in association with the Okanagan Institute

An Ongoing Series of Free Lectures and Presentations that Celebrate the Creative Okanagan

Okanagan Institute

5pm Thursdays
at the Bohemian Café

Click here for schedule
and information.

THE RYGA INITIATIVE AT OKANAGAN COLLEGE

The Ryga Initiative at Okanagan College consists of a number of existing and prospective programs, which are detailed on these pages.

Ryga: A Journal of Provocations | The flagship journal.

Ryga Chapbooks | Print provocations of signature works.

George Ryga Week and Awards | A heritage of excellence.

Ryga Readings | Public presentations and programs in communities.

The Ryga Festival of the Arts | Coming soon to the Okanagan.

The Life & Work of George Ryga | by Allan Twigg.

George Ryga (1931-87) was the author of Canada's best known English-language play, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, first produced in 1967. He was one of Canada's most prolific authors - he maintained a taxing work program as a short story writer, novelist, radio and television dramatist, poet and film scenarist, not to mention ventures into the world of ballet and opera. In a period of 14 years he produced 190 plays, two cantatas, five screenplays, two longplaying albums, three novels, and a book of poetry, as well as a considerable body of unpublished and unproduced work.

Ryga: A Journal of Provocations consists of a single or multiple works by writers whose work the editor considers worthy of readers' attention. It is published as a 275-page book, on good quality recycled paper, with a full colour laminated cover, 4 times a year, and offered for sale at $20 each through the book and periodical trade, and on this website. Subscriptions are available for an annual sum of $70. Electronic versions will be made available to subscribers and purchasers, in whole and in part, for downloading to computer, Kindle and iPhone applications.

Each section of the Journal is individually designed in keeping with the intentions of the writer and the nature of the material presented.

The editor is Sean Johnston, the author of A Day Does Not Go By (Nightwood, 2002), which won the 2003 ReLit Award for short fiction, and the novel All This Town Remembers (Gaspereau, 2006). He's also published chapbooks: A Long Day Inside the Buildings (with Drew Kennickel; JackPine Press, 2004) and Bull Island (Gaspereau, 2004). Sean teaches Literature and Creative Writing at Okanagan College.

The designer and publisher is Robert MacDonald, who is the Publisher in Residence at Okanagan College and the director of the Okanagan Institute.

Some of the individual sections of the Journal are also published as A Ryga Chapbook, in saddlestitched paperback format, with a specially-designed full colour cover, in limited editions of 100 numbered copies, signed by the author. Copies are for sale for $5 each, and are offered first to subscribers.

The Ryga Initiative is associated with the Kalamalka Press at Okanagan College, which publishes a growing list of literary books, and several online initiatives, and with the Okanagan Institute, which contributes to the quality of creative engagement in the Okanagan through publications and events..

I kiss and embrace the revolutionary, for his is the eternal half of the human will! I hold in my hands the kneeling man planting a tomato bush, for he speaks to God as wisely as an astronaut, flying into the eye of heaven! I sing the jingle-jangle songs of today's children, for they are more beautiful than we might ever have been! I breathe deeply the growl and hum and bangle of life, for it redeemed me from the silent despair that once threatened me.

George Ryga, Notes from a Silent Boyhood, 1967